According to the Canadian Minister of Immigration, international students studying in Canada are now eligible to work longer hours off-campus as the country continues to face labor shortages.

Sean Fraser said during a press statement in Ottawa on Friday that as of November 15, eligible students enrolled in studies are allowed to work full-time off-campus for 20 hours per week.

He said the temporary measures will remain in effect until the end of 2023. Thousands of students are stuck in the backlog of immigration in Canada.

What is being done? "With this change, the maximum limit has been raised. Fraser told reporters at a café near the University of Ottawa campus, 'There is no upper limit.' Fraser said this will help maintain the growth of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada and provide a boost to employers in sectors particularly facing a sharp labor shortage.

Additionally, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is also launching a new pilot program to help automate the processing of study permit extension applications.

However, no applications will be automatically rejected under this program; Fraser said only immigration officers can do that. "This pilot program will actually free up our officers to focus their efforts on more complex applications and continue to help reduce the immigration backlog."

This announcement comes at a time when visa delays have affected thousands of international students, many of whom have been forgotten before the start of the academic year.

You may be surprised by car insurance rates for seniors after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration applications to come to Canada are still facing processing delays. However, IRCC expects wait times to decrease in the coming months.

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with updating outdated technology, caused a long delay, as a record number of applications and the war in Ukraine this year led to inventory backlog, according to the government.

By the end of August this year, IRCC processed more than 452,000 study permit applications, which Fraser said was an all-time record. He said, "We are obviously speeding up this processing, but we know we can do better as more international students set their sights on Canada as a prime destination." To address the massive backlog,

IRCC announced a hiring surge in August to bring in 1,250 new employees to the council by the end of fall. The federal government also announced in August that foreign nationals whose work permits have expired or will expire between September 20, 2021, and December 31, 2022, can continue working in Canada for an additional 18 months. To increase transparency, Fraser earlier announced that the department will also provide monthly updates on the number of applications being processed and completed and those that have exceeded the service standard time.

Edited by: Yusra Bamtaraf